Embryo Gene Editing Gets Okay in Britain

Britain on Monday granted its first license for the genetic modification of human embryos as part of research into infertility and why miscarriages happen, in a move likely to raise ethical concerns.

"Our license committee has approved an application from Dr Kathy Niakan of the Francis Crick Institute to renew her laboratory's research license to include gene editing of embryos," the Human Fertilization and Embryology Authority (HFEA) said in a statement.

Sarah Chan from the Usher Institute for Population Health Sciences and Informatics at the University of Edinburgh, said the research "touches on some sensitive issues; therefore it is appropriate that this research and its ethical implications have been carefully considered by the HFEA."

In a research paper published in April last year, Chinese scientists described how they were able to manipulate the genomes of human embryos for the first time, which raised ethical concerns about the new frontier in science.

Junjiu Huang, a gene-function researcher at Sun Yat-sen University in Guangzhou, and colleagues describe how they used the CRISPR-Cas9 technique to modify the genomes of embryos obtained from a fertility clinic.